Those big baggy samurai pants were designed so opponents couldn't try to read you movements by watching your feet and legs. In general, baggy clothing, in terms of stuff intended to be worn in combat, was only used for deceptive purposes, which seems kinda moot when super powers are involved.

Best outfit ever was the soviet deep pressure suit from the old live action flash series._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

There's a reason Olympic wrestling, MMA, and most other serious fightsport garments are close-fitting and minimally-flappy.

Okay. Although I'm not sure why our super strong person is worried about a thug or a branch snagging their sleeve. If capes aren't a problem, why would anything else be?

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So does super strength assume super balance?

I think being able to fly obviates a lot of the need.

So people who can fly are flying all the time? Or do they fly reflexively, the same way you would move your hand out of a fire (an evolutionary trait shared by all people, unlike the power of flight)? How do we know this?

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Can Power Girl even twist an ankle?

How, tripping? I think the sidewalk would give before her joints do. And of course she's not exerting her own super-strength against her ankles, since she can leap tall buildings in a single bound she must not be trying very hard to walk or run normally.

So that's a no, then. Okay.

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Contrary to what Dogen added to his post, I think it's possible for people to look not-ridiculous in Spandex. Olympic athletes usually pull it off, for example. I'm not saying most people even could reach that kind of ideal. But it's not something that could be dismissed with a wave of the hand, especially for a role the public is already primed to identify with unitards and bright colors.

There's not looking ridiculous wearing your spandex in a place people expect to see it (in a wrestling ring, for instance), and then there's looking ridiculous walking around South Beach dressed as an Olympic wrestler. I don't look silly wearing scrubs in a hospital. I do look silly wearing scrubs to a restaurant. People may be used to the idea of superheroes wearing spandex in comics and movies, but they're not used to them walking around in real life. Unless they look like a superhero (muscular, have wings, claws, whatever), they'd just look like a person wearing an odd outfit (weird).

I'm also not certain that your average superhero would look different than your average person - that is, a little overweight. I'm assuming superheroes have genetic mutations, then unless (like glucose transport) the mutation is activated by exercise I think it's safe to assume mutants would look more or less average. Not like Olympic athletes (unless they went to the gym, but what does Power Girl lift for weights? come to think of it, how does she do muscle-building exercises at all?).

But of course, it doesn't matter. If super strength and flight obviate the concerns about capes and high heels then they obviate the concerns about wardrobes in general. Which means superheroes can wear whatever they want without seriously affecting their ability to fight crime. So the question is, would your average person, on suddenly developing super powers, also decide that spandex was the way to go?

Me? No. Cargo pants and a t-shirt. Cotton, preferably, so it breathes. Maybe a jacket. Fall is coming._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. Iíll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

There's a reason Olympic wrestling, MMA, and most other serious fightsport garments are close-fitting and minimally-flappy.

Okay. Although I'm not sure why our super strong person is worried about a thug or a branch snagging their sleeve. If capes aren't a problem, why would anything else be?

WheelsOfConfusion wrote:

Tights and the like make sense for a number of reasons. For the people who don't have powers and rely on agility, the freedom of movement and lack of baggy flappy things to catch on other things is an advantage. For the people who DO have powers, invulnerability and super strength obviate the need for pretty much any considerations of convenience clothing-wise. If you can fly and crush streetcars with your bare hands, going around in heels becomes a viable option. In that case you get to play around with things that look good, like capes.

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So people who can fly are flying all the time? Or do they fly reflexively, the same way you would move your hand out of a fire (an evolutionary trait shared by all people, unlike the power of flight)? How do we know this?

The same way we know anything, Pinkie. Science! Or at least reasonable guesswork and conjecture.

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There's not looking ridiculous wearing your spandex in a place people expect to see it (in a wrestling ring, for instance), and then there's looking ridiculous walking around South Beach dressed as an Olympic wrestler. I don't look silly wearing scrubs in a hospital. I do look silly wearing scrubs to a restaurant. People may be used to the idea of superheroes wearing spandex in comics and movies, but they're not used to them walking around in real life. Unless they look like a superhero (muscular, have wings, claws, whatever), they'd just look like a person wearing an odd outfit (weird).

When they're doing nothing much, sure. When they're hoisting fallen buses back onto bridges, pulling people out of a burning building, or even just being the one that interrupts a mugging? That's when the purposes of a costume assert themselves. You want to stand out and give people something positive to focus on, you want that symbolism. Because the more people think of your actions as representing an ideal, the less likely they are to laugh at your tights I MEAN the less likely they are to target you personally for whatever reason.
And if you ever need to make use of your powers to strong-arm somebody into submission, you'd better make sure the other bystanders (not to mention the police) don't think you're just some other schmuck who picked a fight. You want people to know WHY you're putting that guy into an arm lock, or else some of them are going to think you mugged him.

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I'm also not certain that your average superhero would look different than your average person - that is, a little overweight.

Which is when it's appropriate to not wear tights, or to make strategic use of those leather jackets everybody was donning in the 90s.
Like I said, tights aren't strictly necessary. But they're not something that should be ruled out just because they're the stuff of comic books. They have their uses, and those things have already been thoroughly explored in the fiction and metafiction so it's kind of close-minded to dismiss the idea out of hand.

It may be a cliche that the origin story in comics and movies will spend a few minutes to dwell on how the hero chooses a costume or a symbol to become an ideal in the people's eyes, but think about how much and how deeply we associate abstract concepts with a police badge, a doctor's smock, a fireman's hat, or an Marine's dress blues.

While designed for mere mortals, these would work just fine for most super heroes:
_________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Okay. Although I'm not sure why our super strong person is worried about a thug or a branch snagging their sleeve. If capes aren't a problem, why would anything else be?

WheelsOfConfusion wrote:

Tights and the like make sense for a number of reasons. For the people who don't have powers and rely on agility, the freedom of movement and lack of baggy flappy things to catch on other things is an advantage. For the people who DO have powers, invulnerability and super strength obviate the need for pretty much any considerations of convenience clothing-wise. If you can fly and crush streetcars with your bare hands, going around in heels becomes a viable option. In that case you get to play around with things that look good, like capes.

Fair enough. For the non-super-strong, costume choices are pertinent. Then the question becomes whether your average superhero, most likely looking like your average person, would ever pick it.

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So people who can fly are flying all the time? Or do they fly reflexively, the same way you would move your hand out of a fire (an evolutionary trait shared by all people, unlike the power of flight)? How do we know this?

The same way we know anything, Pinkie. Science! Or at least reasonable guesswork and conjecture.

We differ on this. I see no reason to assume people who have the power of flight also have flight reflexes. Or at least not a priori, maybe with practice ("muscle memory").

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When they're doing nothing much, sure. When they're hoisting fallen buses back onto bridges, pulling people out of a burning building, or even just being the one that interrupts a mugging? That's when the purposes of a costume assert themselves. You want to stand out and give people something positive to focus on, you want that symbolism. Because the more people think of your actions as representing an ideal, the less likely they are to laugh at your tights I MEAN the less likely they are to target you personally for whatever reason.
And if you ever need to make use of your powers to strong-arm somebody into submission, you'd better make sure the other bystanders (not to mention the police) don't think you're just some other schmuck who picked a fight. You want people to know WHY you're putting that guy into an arm lock, or else some of them are going to think you mugged him.

This sounds like an argument for a costume in general, not for spandex.

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I'm also not certain that your average superhero would look different than your average person - that is, a little overweight.

Which is when it's appropriate to not wear tights, or to make strategic use of those leather jackets everybody was donning in the 90s.
Like I said, tights aren't strictly necessary. But they're not something that should be ruled out just because they're the stuff of comic books. They have their uses, and those things have already been thoroughly explored in the fiction and metafiction so it's kind of close-minded to dismiss the idea out of hand.

So if your average superhero looked like your average person, and average people are more likely to be covered up, then wouldn't your average superhero most likely be covered up? That is, not walking around in just tights? Not that they couldn't, but that most wouldn't.

I think the costumes in comic books are silly because I doubt the majority of people would choose to wear something that revealing regardless of how sculpted their body is. I think they'd be more likely to come up with a costume that reflected their own style (pre-superpowers), which for most people is not spandex. The fact that almost every superhero has the same sense of style (just with more or less actual skin showing) is unbelievable._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. Iíll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

Problem no one has mentioned yet: costumes make it harder to blend into the crowd. You have to race for the nearest empty phone booth before someone spots you if you don't want your identity known._________________Juke Joint Jezebel

While well intentioned, that's an awfully dangerous tool that can be readily abused and misused. Who oversees and fact checks it?_________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake